Melissa L. Miller, Assembly 20th District

Melissa L. Miller

Republican

BACKGROUND: Miller, 54, of Atlantic Beach,  was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2016. She is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines. Miller is the ranking member of the Assembly Mental Health Committee. She also serves on the education, alcohol and substance abuse, environmental conservation, children and families and social services committees. She is a member of the Legislative Women’s Caucus.  Miller, who grew up in Atlantic Beach, attended Adelphi University school of nursing in the early 1980s but left college to care for an ill child who passed away. Miller worked as a nurse’s assistant and then as a medical biller in a Hewlett pediatrician’s office. From 1998 to 2000, Miller served as the president of the parents’ association at Little Village School in Seaford. For the past 25 years she has been a volunteer training pediatric physicians in the residency programs at Northwell Health about dealing with chronically ill children.. Miller is married and has two children.

ISSUES: Miller says  “I feel very strongly that access for disabled people needs to be improved in New York State.” Miller said that one of her first accomplishments in the Assembly was to include a feasibility study into the state budget on the need for changing stations for disabled adults in all public buildings. On taxes she says, “The No. 1 thing I hear from constituents is that the taxes are strangling them." She says she continues to support the state-mandated 2 percent tax cap on public school budgets. She said high taxes are making it difficult for local college graduates and young families to afford to buy a home on Long Island. Miller said that among her goals, if re-elected, would be to support legislation to lengthen inpatient treatment for opioid addiction and improve outpatient resources.